Maltagliati al Mascarpone
Pasta with Mascarpone
Maltagliati al Mascarpone is a pasta dish hailing from the town of Lodi in Lombardy. Mascarpone, a very mild cream cheese, originated in Lombardy in the 16th century but has become popular the world over. In Lodi, mascarpone is mixed with Grana Padano, Italy's most ubiquitous hard cheese, and served with maltagliati pasta. Meaning "poorly cut," maltagliate is made with the odd ends that are left over after cutting egg pasta to make tagliatelle or other dishes. They look like large, irregular shapes. In Italy, they are commercialy available in dry form.
Maltagliati isn't easily available in the US, so I had to find a substitute. My supermarket's fresh pasta is limited to stuffed pasta and thin noodles, significantly different from maltagliati. While some recipes suggest that you use dry lasagna noodles and break them into pieces instead, none of them were made with egg. Among the egg pastas they had, parpadelle seemed to be the closest one - though the Cecco parpadelle I used were impossibly long. Still, at least they were imported from Italy. I used Boar's Head Grana Padano, which is also imported from Italy, and which I liked quite a bit. It had a sharp, nutty but balanced flavor that I thought was better than their Parmigiano. Unfortunately, I could only find domestic mascarpone.
Despite having different origins, this dish is basically a variation of fettucine alfredo - using mascarpone instead of butter and grana instead of parmigiano. Alas, I prefer the former. The mascarpone, despite being a cheese, is as mild as butter or cream and didn't really impart any cheesey flavor. The grana was the ony thing imparting flavor to the pasta, but there wasn't enough of it - even though I used twice as much as recommended in the recipe.
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Pasta with Mascarpone
Ingredients
- 2 egg yolks
- 6 oz mascarpone cheese
- salt & pepper to taste
- a dash of freshly grated nutmeg
- 4 oz finely grated Grana Padano cheese, divided.
- 9 oz pasta (see introduction for type)
Directions
In a large pasta bowl, whisk the egg yolks. Whisk in the mascarpone cheese. Season with salt and pepper and nutmeg and mix. Add half of the grana padano and mix again. Set aside.
Bring a pot of water to a boil and add salt. Add the pasta and cook per manufacturer's directions, usually about 2 to 3 minutes for fresh and 8 to 10 minutes for dry pasta. Transfer drained pasta to the bowl and coat well. Serve with remaining Grana cheese.
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Adapted from a recipe at LombardiaFood.
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